Audit, Inspection and Safety

23.07.19:
Tower Hamlets Council’s children’s service has jumped two grades and achieved a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted after inspectors found a “transformed culture” and “remarkable progress.”
In 2017, the...

23.07.19:
The government has pledged to ban “poor doors” to help end the segregation of social housing residents in mixed-housing developments in future builds.
Communities secretary James Brokenshire announced the measures to “tack...

16.07.19:
Norwich county councillors have formally approved a new link road for the Norwich bypass, despite the environmental group Extinction Rebellion staging protests on the steps of the County Hall.
The council’s cabinet committee backed a...

15.07.19:
Councils across England are set to receive a further £28m to help ease pressures on local services following increased migration, from alleviating rough sleeping and community integration to targeting rogue landlords.
The funding boos...

11.07.19:
A review of the statutory guidance for council-provided youth services has been launched by the government.
Civil society minister Mims Davies made the announcement, stating that the review will “focus on the positive role local autho...

09.07.19:
New guidance for setting executive pay has been published by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), suggesting trusts must be prepared to cut pay in cases of poor management.
The new guidance sets out key factors that should be use...

08.07.19:
Outsourcing giant Amey has struck a deal with Birmingham City Council to pay the authority £300m to escape its troubled road maintenance deal which was worth £2.7bn.
The deal will see Amey pay the city council £215m to cut...

04.07.19:
The second phase of the Predictive Cyber Analytics competition has been launched by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) in order to help develop a deployable solution to predict and counter future cyber threats.
This competition is...

04.07.19:
Northamptonshire County Council has delivered a balanced budget for 2018-19 with a “remarkable” underspend of £4.5m, a £34.6m improvement compared to July 2018.
Last year the cash-strapped council was twice forced to...

03.07.19:
Local authorities must be given “more powers, funding” and the freedom to raise council taxes in order to tackle the widespread challenges facing councils, the new chair of the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Speaki...

01.07.19:
New-build houses will now be sold on a freehold basis, the government has announced, effectively outlawing the “unscrupulous practice of unnecessary leaseholds.”
All future homeowners will benefit in a “bold move to tackle...

28.06.19:
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced that Sarah Albon has been appointed its new chief executive, with the current inspector general and chief executive of the Insolvency Service joining HSE on 1 September.
Ms Albon will...

13.06.19:
A fifth of the country’s public sector workers say they have NEVER received a ‘thank you’ for doing their job as Public Service Day approaches.
Almost 5.4 million people are employed in the public sector and civil service...

10.06.19:
Martin Ferguson, director of policy and research at Socitm, discusses the potential of 5G in the public sector, and the need to properly assess the risks.
Let’s face it. There’s something quintessentially British about apologisi...

22.05.19:
Councils in England face a funding black hole of over £50bn across the next six years, according to a new report warning that local authorities will soon be forced to resort to providing the “bare minimum.”
In the new repo...

editor's comment

Devolution, restructuring and widespread service reform: from a journalist’s perspective, it’s never been a more exciting time to report on the public sector. That’s why I could not be more thrilled to be taking over the reins at PSE at this key juncture.
There could not be a feature that more perfectly encapsulates this...read more >

last word

Following the recent Grenfell Tower tragedy, Lord Porter, chairman of the LGA, argues that if the public are going to have faith in the safety testing process then everything must be out in the o...more >more last word articles >

Boris Johnson has pledged his support for the Northern Powerhouse and for further devolution deals, alongside announcing the creation of a new growth body with powers to bring together major orga...more >

the raven's daily blog

In February this year, official Northern Powerhouse Partner, Cognitive Publishing, delivered EvoNorth 2019. The two day event was designed to amplify and highlight future developments the region has to offer - uniting leaders responsible for fuelling the Northern Powerhouse agenda, including Dr Nicola Headlam, Head of the Northern Powerh...more >